Sweatpants & Humor l Wondrous Words: Villains and NANOWRIMO

By Jerusha Gray

November means it is time for knee-high boots, cozy knitwear, and all things pumpkin spice. November is also National Novel Writer’s Month known as NANOWRIMO. It is an internet-based creative contest to write a first draft of a novel in one month with a minimum of 50,000 words. It is intense, and wonderful, and nerve-wracking. Want to know why your writer friends are dodging your calls? Chances are they are cramming to meet their daily goal for 1667 words to stay on track. Are you taking part? Bless you. Welcome to this rollercoaster of an adventure.

What is a story without a dastardly villain? I pulled a list of some of my favorite synonyms for villainous to add to your vocab tool box. These delectable beauties will grab readers by the thesaurus and keep them coming back for more.

I love the way this one feels when I say it out loud. There is something weighty and wrought with good old fashioned guilt with this adjective that means “characterized by injustice or wickedness; wicked; sinful”

“I’ve toed the straight and narrow for so long Miss Sarah. What did it get me? Not a thing! Well, I will have none of it now. It’s time I took what I want without thought to another. Iniquitous or no, the time to grasp life by the horns is here.”

This little beauty has a veritable treasure trove of definitions. It is an adjective that can be described as: wretchedly bad, highly offensive, unpleasant, objectionable, repulsive, depraved, filthy, and nauseating.

I once scored the highest score of my Scrabble career with this word. I might as well stop playing. It is only downhill from here. Felonious is a legal term that means: pertaining to, the nature of, or involving a felony. It can also mean: wicked, base, or villainous.

“You might as well start referring to yourself as Felonious Phillip. Your lack of sound judgement in the company you keep is likely to land you in the slammer any day now.

This adjective comes from the Latin word peccāre which means ‘to err’. It means: sinning; guilty of a moral offense, violating a rule, principle or established practice. The British also include the definition of morbid or inciting disease.

“The young man knelt and begged for forgiveness. ‘I know that my peccant ways have shamed you and our family. I pray that you will find it in your heart to accept this as a true act of contrition.’ ”

Thank you for writing this! This will be our first Christmas without our mother (she died this August). It has been hard for me with my own depression because I'm that same way. I'll dance through the responsibilities and then WHAM the sadness settles over me like a dark cloud.